Genetic diversity study for parental selection in bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.)

摘要

Nature and magnitude of genetic divergence assessed on twenty two bitter gourd genotypes assembled from different geographical locations showed the presence of wide genetic diversity. The genotypes were grouped into six clusters based on Mahalanobis D~2 statistics using Tocher's method. The clustering pattern of genotypes revealed that the genetic diversity was independent of the geographical diversity. Among the six clusters, maximum number of genotypes were found in cluster I and the clusters V andVI were found to be mono genotypic. Among the fourteen quantitative characters studied, individual fruit weight constituted a maximum of 26.83 per cent to the divergence, followed by yield of fruits per vine and length of fruit. Ranking of genotypes based on intra cluster mean performance for those characters which are major contributors of genetic diversity revealed its usefulness in selecting parents for heterosis breeding.